Coding Error Caused Obamacare Glitch on Tax Documents

The Obamacare glitch, which led to 800,000 people receiving the wrong tax forms, was caused by a coding error, an official has confirmed.

The coding error led to a glitch that miscalculated subsidies for 20 percent of the Obamacare-related tax forms by incorrectly listing 2015 data instead of 2014 data, "because of an intermittent defect in the code that was used to create these forms,” the official wrote in a statement, The Hill is reporting.

Health and Human Services reported the error on Friday, saying that because of the mistake, those who received the inaccurate tax forms should wait until the correct forms are sent out before filing their taxes. The correct forms will be sent out in early March.

HHS didn't say initially what had caused the glitch.

According to government officials, 95 percent of those who were sent the wrong 1095-A forms haven't filed their taxes yet.

HealthCare.gov, which was plagued with glitches in the past, has not had any major problems during the most recent open enrollment period until now. A one-week extension was granted to those enrolling for health insurance plans through the government website after delays plagued the website.

Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, who is the Senate Finance Committee chair, sent a letter to the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services, which manages the federal marketplace, complaining that it had "no explanation for the errors," which he said "will delay the processing of returns for 800,000 taxpayers," The Hill is reporting.

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Friday that the issue should be resolved soon enough so that the affected taxpayers don't miss the April 15 deadline.